3.

6 STANDARD
FORM

48
What Is Another Way to Write
These NUMBERS?
56

567

5678

567890000000000000000

0.56

0.056

0.0056

0.00000000000000000056
 Laws of Indices
Standard Form

Standard form is commonly used for numbers that are very large
or very small although any number can easily be written in this
form. Standard form makes use of the laws of indices but
numbers are only expressed in one base, base 10.

A number is in standard form if it is written as:

a x 10n where 1 ≤ a < 10

Examples:
2.5 x 103 4.62 x 105 5.389 x 107

1 x 107 8.563 x 1017 9.562 x 1034

1.4 x 10-8 8.89 x 10-45 1.1 x 100

50
 Laws of
How to write a number Indices form.
in standard

Place the decimal point after the first non-zero digit then
multiply or divide it by a power of 10 to give the same value.

56 = 5.6 x 10 = 5.6 x 101

567 = 5.67 x 100 = 5.67 x 102

5678 = 5.678 x 1000 = 5.678 x 103

56789 = 5.6789 x 10 000 = 5.6789 x 104

0.56 = 5.6 ÷ 10 = 5.6 x 10-1
0.056 = 5.6 ÷ 100 = 5.6 x 10-2
0.0056 = 5.6 ÷ 1000 = 5.6 x 10-3
0.00056 = 5.6 ÷ 10 000 = 5.6 x 10-4
Write the following in standard form.
23 234 4585 4.6 0.78 0.053 0.00123
2.3x 101 2.34x 102 4.585x 103 4.6x 100 7.8x 10-1 5.3x 10-2 1.23x 10-3

51
 Laws ofnumbers
Writing very large/small Indicesin standard form.

Write the number below in standard form

6 7 5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

6.754 x 1017

Write the number below in standard form

4 3 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4.371 x 1014

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 Laws ofnumbers
Writing very large/small Indices in standard form.

Write the number below in standard form

0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 6

4.26 x 10-15

Write the number below in standard form

0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 8 3

5.83 x 10-11

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 Laws of Indices

The distance between the Earth and

Moon is approximately 245 000 miles. 2.45 x 105
Write this distance in standard form.

The distance to the 93 000 000

Sun is approximately
93 million miles.
Write this distance in
standard form. 9.3 x 107

57
 The mass of the Earth is approximately
6 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg.
Write this number in standard form.

6.0 x 1024
The mass of Jupiter is approximately
2 390 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg. Write
this number in standard form.

2.39 x 1027

How many times more massive is Jupiter than Earth?

2.39 x 1027 / 6.0 x 1024 = 398

58
 The mass of a uranium atom is approximately
0. 00 000 000 000 000 000 000 395 g.
Write this number in standard form.

3.95 x 10-21

The mass of a hydrogen atom is approximately

0. 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 167 g.
Write this number in standard form.

1.67 x 10-22

How many times heavier is uranium than

hydrogen?

3.95 x 10-21 / 1.67 x 10-22 = 23.7

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